Friday, May 23

I've learned a few more lessons about Kerala & the Hartals from my last visit to my home state.

Things wont change even if it is the leftists at the helm or not, whether there is a court order or not, if yours is an IT City or not or even if the political party in protest is national, regional or a local-hopper...

I'm writing this as an epilogue to what I experienced in Kerala on the May 2 BJP Hartal day.

They say a picture speaks a million words. So here is a compilation of how Kerala and rest of India responded to the 'strike against price hike' by BJP.

It was almost as if it was a national holiday in Kerala. The weirdest fact was that the Hartal was a no-no in most of the BJP stronghold states , unlike Kerala were the party is always a complete washout.

And this happens in a state with chronic and burning economic problems, where losing such man hours and productivity are almost unthinkable.

Whatever, there seem to be no end to this menace...

We can laugh at this, or we can cry...but nothing ever seems to change in my sweet little Kerala.

PS: I've denoted the term 'Hartal' in upper cases, just because I felt it needed to be treated as something more important. It may be alright to mention it as 'hartal' in other parts of India, but here down in Kerala we certainly need the capital 'H'. Also I would be appreciate very much if someone could enlighten me with the difference between a 'bandh', 'hartal' and 'panimudakku'...